Sunday, June 28, 2015

Week 55: 외국인's out the wazoo!!‏

Okay people of the internet, family, friends, people that I
love and admire. This one is going to be a short one, but I'll do my best. Time
is short and occasionally I wish that those vulcan mind melds worked over time,
space, and the internet because there has been so much happening, and it's so
fun and I wish that I could really capture it all better than I can with google
chrome and sans serif font. But alas, I'll do my best.

The title of the week means "foreigners" out the
wazoo because church was great! This week one of ward members, Brother Patro
from Mexico baptized his wife Sreymom who is from Cambodia. Patro is super cool
and speaks like 9 languages fluently with five or six he's working on right
now. I don't understand people like that--but I'm glad that God is good and
that Patro is doing so awesome! His wife Sreymom is the sweetest lady ever and
so happy and gave the best testimony ever at her baptismal service that Patro
translated into Korean for the ward. Actually it was really fun because she was
speaking Cambodian and Patro was translating into Korean and then I was in
charge of translating the whole meeting into English for the other foreigner
members in the ward. Our ward is fun because there is an English group (smaller
than a branch) within our Korean ward. So me and either Elder Baker or Elder
Hogan (the other American elders I live with) are in charge of translating
sacrament meeting into English from Korean every Sunday. It's really tough at
times but also fun. Everyone we translate for wears headsets and there is a
transmitter that we speak into via microphone. I feel like a spy missionary. I
think the tie helps with the vibe.. and the Spirit helps with the translation.
It is fun because I do my best to try and get an exact translation but
sometimes with language lags (thanks reverse grammar) I miss gaps, but the Spirit
always gives me something to say and it is amazing how the sweet English
speakers can still feel the Spirit and learn and be edified despite my
weakness. I really know that God is good and gives us exactly what we need. He gives
us opportunities to shine and opportunities to rely on His grace and mercy and
be made stronger. And I know that even though I am full of weaknesses, when I
am doing His work, He does and will magnify me to make me the man for the job.
I've really felt that this week, that God knows us. He loves us. He is
perfectly aware of our circumstances and the circumstances of those around us
and will give us all we need to take care of our immediate needs and gives us
what we need to help others too. . . Back to the foreigners. So this week our
member from Kenya, brother Antony brought a friend from school (who happens to
also be from Cambodia) named Sokha and Sohka loved church! She is super great
and super nice. She converted from Buddhism to Christianity just a few years
ago, though doesn't belong to a particular denomination. She got along super
well with Sreymom. I have faith. Hopefully Sokha's name will make the heading of
the email in a coming week. The other foreigner was this random black (sorry, African
American) lady from New York that came to sacrament meeting and stayed for
lunch and the baptismal service. I guess she has a Korean friend...yeah, I'm
not positive. But hopefully she is in the heading of a future email!! Fun day
for foreigners and translating and the Spirit is so awesome!!

This week I had 순대국밥 which is pretty tasty actually. It's
something like noodles and mashed bean paste stuffed in pig intestine with some
pig ear and other assorted parts thrown in. Really...okay! The worst part was
when Elder 박 told me to eat this nice looking green pepper before our food
came. Turns out it wasn't the nice one I thought it was but really spicy 고추 ,
like the spiciest one in Korea. And to make matters worse I dipped it in 고추
sauce before I ate it to add flavor!~~ (insert mental pictures of a very hot
and slightly perspiring Elder Tucker) It was pretty good and I might do it next
time too!~

I love you guys and I
am short on time. But some quick thought about charity from my personal study
today..

2.0

When I'm filled with charity, the pure love of Christ, I
fully accept and begin to exemplify a "thy will be done" attitude.
Charity, the pure love of Christ, is loving God with all of my heart, might,
mind, strength, with my whole soul, and seeking His will in all things. This
means keeping His commandments not out of duty or for the hope of blessings,
but simply because I love and trust God and want to "do always those
things which please Him". When I'm filled with the love of Christ I will
love all of my brethren for it was charity that enabled Christ to pass beneath
all things and take upon himself our infirmities. Possessing charity entails
seeking to serve others and then doing all I can to help them receive the
restored gospel, for that's what Christ did for all of us!

Charity is a game changer because it is the attribute that
changes my perspective, putting me on a different plane with God and rooting
within me the desires that lead to good works and the development of a new
creature in Christ. Moroni's Call to me in chapter 7:48 is to pray for charity
with all purpose of heart that I may be filled with this love. This one act,
the development of charity will purify and purge me. Charity is love and love
is light and I'm seeking to be a light on a hill, shining forth with the light
of Christ, the light of the world. Through charity and true and proper desires
I'll be able to love like Christ and hopefully help others to feel that
infinite and abiding, that abounding love that so freely he offers me. With charity
I change. I grow and deepen. With charity I'm able to, like Christ, turn
outward rather than inward, developing other essential attributes, enabling me
to take the step from a servant of God doing missionary things to a truly
Christlike missionary, an instrument in the hands of God.